Is Malaysia Airlines Safe? Reviews and Safety Ratings

Malaysia Airlines is a 3-star certified airline and it is safe to fly with Malaysia Airlines now. The Airline was founded on 1st May 1947 and started its operations on 1st October 1972 till now. Also, the average rating received is 7 out of 7. In 2014, two tragedies happened with the airlines after which it faced so many problems. In both events, it was proved that the failures were not directly caused by Malaysia Airlines or by its safety/maintenance procedures. These ratings make Malaysia Airlines a better choice for the passengers. In this blog post, we will take a deep dive to explore and know “is Malaysia Airlines safe or not”.

Table of Contents

Malaysia Airlines Fleet And Ratings

Malaysia Airlines scored 3 out of 7 in safety rating and 7 out of 7 stars for product rating. This shows how safe is Malaysia Airlines. These ratings are based on the Airline ratings site. Passengers can choose Malaysia Airlines with closed eyes nowadays. The reason behind this is that the airline uses modern aircraft for most of its flights. Aircraft age is one of the important aspects of safety parameters. Alternatively, if the Airline maintains the aircraft properly, it will increase the graph of safety much higher and passengers will be safe in older aircraft as well. The airline is operating with A330, A350, and 737 aircraft which are pretty good and safest. The aircraft can be operated for 30 years if the maintenance level is high for these aircraft.

According to a survey, 9.5 years is the average weighted age of the Malaysia Airlines fleet. Aircraft A330s are the oldest aircraft in Malaysia Airlines with an average of 10.9 years. The oldest aircraft was delivered in 2011 which was A330 and the youngest aircraft was delivered in 2018. These youngest aircraft were A350s.

Aircraft	Number of Aircraft	Average Age/ years
A330	24	10.9
A350	6	4.1
737	59	9.5
Total	89	9.5

The average fleet age of Malaysia Airlines is 9.5 years. check the below-mentioned table below in comparison with other airlines’ fleet sizes:

Airline	Average Fleet Age
Air France	14.3
Lufthansa	10.5
United Airlines	16.5
British Airways	12.9
Cathay Pacific	7.5
Qantas	12.7
Emirates	8.4

Malaysia Airlines and Oneworld Alliance

Malaysia Airlines is one of the airlines which is IOSA certified and is scored 3 stars out of 7. The average rating and stars are decided by the safety audit associations and members which helps us recognize which airlines are safe and which are not. Below are the mentioned points to remember:

Malaysia Airlines already received an IOSA certification (IATA Operational Safety Audit Certificate).
IOSA certification is an option and can be audited every 2 years to check the systems and processes are properly installed in order to operate safely.
Malaysia Airlines is active in the European Union and the United States.
Malaysia Airlines safety ratings show that it performs pretty well in the ICAO Country Audits which is used to present the safety and regulation.

The safety aviation industry of Malaysia is regulated by the Civil Aviation Authority of Malaysia (CAAM).
The IATA safety audit represents that the CAAM audit is good and follows a range of 80-85% of implementation in seven areas which completely matches or exceeds when audited. On the other hand, it is below the average and failed in 1 area.

The rest 4 stars out of 7 were deducted in the below points:

In the last 10 years, Malaysia Airlines has gone through some tragic events and fatal accidents. 3 stars were deducted directly on the basis of these events.
Also, Airlines face some issues related to COVID-19 mitigation. 1 star was cut down for this.

Apart from all this, Malaysia Airlines is one of the members of the Oneworld Alliance. This Alliance is one of the world’s 3 major alliances and is a significant aspect of safety and operations in the airline industry. Some of the members of Oneworld Alliance are American Airlines, British Airways, Cathay Pacific, Finnair, Iberia, Japan Airlines, Qatar Airways, and Qantas.

Malaysia Airlines Incidents and Accidents

There were some accidents and incidents that happened with Malaysia Airlines in 2014. It was like a disastrous year for them and both the 2 were the major fatal disasters. Check the below-mentioned points to know in detail:

The first accident happened on March 8, 2014, when Malaysia Airlines 777 was flying from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing and suddenly disappeared from radar screens. Somewhere over the Indian Ocean, the flight went missing and all the 239 persons onboard were declared dead. This case is still a mystery.

Another incident happened on July 17, 2014, just 3 months after the previous incident when Flight 777 was flying between Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur and was shot down over Ukraine. All 298 passengers with crew were dead.

This was the serious harm to the Malaysia Airlines. None of them happened due to Airline negligence and was completely unfortunate. In the 2nd case, the flight was flying 1000 ft above the Ukraniana Airspace and was restricted by them.

Also, there’s one more incident that happened with Malaysia Airlines aircraft. The aircraft “Fokker 50” flew from Kota Kinabalu to Tawau in 1995. The plane touched down the runway bounced like a ball multiple times, and crashed into a shantytown after the final touchdown of approximately 800 feet on the end of the runway. 34 were died out of 53 occupants.

Here is a list of other incidents that happened in the past 30 years that were not very big:

Date	Aircraft	Location	Commentary
May 1992	DHC-6 Twin Otter	Sibu Airport	At the time of landing, the aircraft lost control and crashed in the bushy area. There was only one passenger injured and no other passenger was harmed in this.
September 1992	Fokker 50	Sibu Airport	While landing, the aircraft’s main landing gear generated smoke. After 600 m on the runway, the aircraft lost control and exited the runway. The nose section had been damaged by the airport fence.
November 1996	MD-11	Buenos Aires, Ezeiza-Ministro Pistarini Airport	At the time of landing, the pilot performed a “go around” due to unsuccessful landing. On the second approach, the aircraft failed to stop due to a wet runway and stopped 50m beyond the runway’s end.
January 1998	DHC-6 Twin Otter	Limbang Airport	The aircraft landed normally, but then bounced twice before crashing into a drain.
March 2000	A330	Kuala Lumpur International Airport	The flight was arriving from Beijing, while unloading the canisters of highly toxic chemicals, 5 staff members suffered and faced issues because of the strong toxic fumes. It also caused severe damage to the aircraft and its fuselage.
June 2014	A330F	Astana International Airport	The A330 aircraft wing sustained damage after the crash.
March 2015	A330	Melbourne-T Tullamarine Airport	Aircraft was under control but approached the runway fast. This resulted in a hard landing which damaged the parts of the aircraft but no injuries happened.
April 2017	737	Sibu Airport	The aircraft turned to the right while landing on a runway. Before stopping completely, the nose of the aircraft collapsed. All the people including the crew were safe and evacuated.

Conclusion

In conclusion, we can say that Malaysia Airlines is safe to travel. That happened in 2014 was unfortunate and there is no proof found which can clearly show that the incident happened because of Malaysia Airline’s carelessness. Malaysia Airlines is a big name in the aviation industry and operates a large fleet of aircraft. The Airline follows almost all the necessary safety protocols and procedures. Also, Malaysia Airlines ranked 7 out of 7 in terms of product rating. This blog post includes all the necessary information to answer the question: Is Malaysia Airlines Safe or not? Passengers can read the complete article before choosing their favorite airlines and planning their next trip to their dream destination.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

Is Malaysia Airlines good to travel?

Yes, Malaysia Airlines is good to travel because of its 7 out of 7 product rating. Also, airlines received a 3-star rating out of 7 in Safety criteria.

What rank is Malaysia Airlines?

Malaysia Airlines is the 26th best airline in the world. The airline scored 3/5 scores for its meal, inflight entertainment, seat comfort, and staff service.

is it safe to fly Malaysia Airlines?

Malaysia Airlines is a completely safe airline. The airline follows all the safety criteria and procedures and scored 3 stars out of 7 in the Safety rating.